Vegeta's First Christmas
by T-money1
Summary: It's Christmas time and everyone is excited. All except for Vegeta. What will it take for the Saiyan Prince to get the Christmas spirit? It might take a miracle, that's for sure. Semi Bulma/Vegeta. Please R&R.


Disclaimer: Don't own anything, so don't sue. Okay? Good!

Since I am in such a great Christmas mood at the moment, I decided to something special for the time of year. This was an old fic of mine on this site over a year ago. So now that it's Xmas time once more, I decided to revise it and repost it for some new readers to enjoy it.

Once again, it revolves around my favorite character Vegeta and his first Christmas on Earth. Basically, what's going on is everyone is getting ready to spend the season with their families and loved ones. All except Vegeta, who feels alone in the universe. What can help the Saiyan Prince experience the miracle of Christmas? Read on to find out.

This will take place in the first year of the mysterious 'three years' between the Trunks saga and the Android saga. This will also show a little bit of Bulma/Vegeta. Obviously, it will have to, since they get together in the future. So read on and enjoy, ya heard?

**VEGETA'S FIRST CHRISTMAS**

"And that should about do it," Bulma said, definitely in a good mood. "Not a bad job, if I do say so myself."

With only a week until Christmas, she set up the last of the holiday decorations around the Capsule Corporation house. Nothing was going to get her spirits down, not even her recent, and most likely final, break-up with Yamcha. She and her parents were planning a huge get-together with their friends, all of whom could hardly wait for Christmas to arrive.

That is, all except for Vegeta.

Speaking of the Saiyan Prince, he spent most of the time leading up to Christmas locked inside the gravity room, trying to become a Super Saiyan. It seemed that the only times he came out were to eat, shower and sleep.

So far, Bulma tried to get him into the Christmas spirit, but has failed thus far.

"Maybe I should go get him and see if he wants to go shopping with me," the blue-haired woman said to herself. "It couldn't hurt to at least ask and see if I can get him in the mood."

Bulma stopped what she was doing, grabbed a coat and walked out towards the gravity room. She came to the opening hatch and knocked.

"Who is it?" said the gruff voice from inside.

"It's me, Bulma."

Vegeta turned the power off and opened the door. He had a towel around his neck, while wearing his spandex shorts and sneakers. As he exposed himself to the outside, the sweat on his body seemed to freeze upon contact with the cold weather.

"What the hell do you want, woman?" Vegeta asked irritably. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying to train here. I don't have time for whatever stupid crap you have on your mind."

Bulma became irritated by his rudeness. "First off, my name is Bulma, not woman! Get it? B-U-L…"

"I know how you spell it," Vegeta interrupted. "I just choose not to say it. So once again, what do you want? I don't have all day."

"I wanted to know if you want t o come to the mall with me today," the proud female suggested. "Just to keep me company while I do some last minute shopping? Maybe find something you want to pick out."

"Sure, I'll go with you," the Saiyan Prince said as he slowly grinned. "I mean, why not?"

"Really?" she asked with a smile.

"No!" he said as his grinned disappeared and he closed the hatch in her face.

He attempted to restart his training until another, more forceful, pounding emanated from the hatch.

Vegeta opened the hatch again and confronted the female Earthling. "Now what?"

"Ah come on Vegeta, just come along so I don't have to be by myself" pleaded Bulma with puppy eyes. "Please?"

"That's not going to work this time," he said boldly.

"Please?" she tried again.

"Fine, I'll go!" Vegeta threw his hands up in defeat. "The last thing I want to deal with right now is an emotional Earth woman. I have a lot on my mind and I certainly don't need that."

"Thanks Vegeta," she thanked him politely.

"Just let me take a shower and get dressed," Vegeta told her as they both left the gravity room.

* * *

Bulma was now waiting in the living room for Vegeta to get dressed.

It wasn't long until she saw Vegeta come down the stairs wearing a dark blue t-shirt, black jeans, blue sneakers, and his leather jacket.

She asked, "You ready?"

"I guess so," he muttered with almost no enthusiasm. "Let's get this charade over with."

* * *

As they were driving in Bulma's air car, the blue-haired woman looked over at Vegeta.

Noticing the stare she was giving him, he asked, "What is it?"

"You know Vegeta; you look really nice today."

Vegeta only grumbled, "Whatever."

The two didn't talk for the rest of the way.

* * *

Upon arriving at the mall, Bulma and Vegeta went over to JC Penny's.

"I want to look around inside for a few minutes," Bulma said. "You want to come in with me?"

"I'll just wait out here for you," the Saiyan Prince said with his hands in his jacket pockets.

"I'll be back in a few then," she told him before she went in, leaving Vegeta all alone.

Vegeta, knowing that he had a plenty of time before she came out, wandered around the mall.

Well, not really, he knew exactly where he was going.

He stopped in front of a jeweler's shop and looked into the window to see many pendants. But what he was looking at was special.

This wasn't the first time he came here to look at it. He's actually done this a lot since he arrived on Earth. First, when he and Bulma went shopping for some clothes to wear when he first came to Earth and then numerous times since that day. He would always wander here whenever he had the chance to.

The reason why the pendent was so striking to Vegeta was that it reminded him of someone special,

His mother, Queen Straberra.

In fact, it looked almost exactly like a pendent that his mother gave him just before she died. Looking through the window, the sight of it brought back memories of her.

She had long dark, almost violet hair that went down the small of her back, dark onyx eyes, an elfish chin, and a sharp upturn nose. Her skin was tanned and her body was toned. She was muscular but in a feminine way. All in all, she was seen by many as a perfect example of Saiyan beauty and Saiyan strength.

Vegeta remembered how she would smile at him when he was a boy, always calling him 'her little prince.'

* * *

_A doctor had just left the royal bedroom in the palace._

_Outside, he met King Vegeta, where he told him of the queen's progress, who was suffering from a fatal virus._

"_I'm sorry, sire," the doctor told King Vegeta. "We've done everything we could. It won't be long now."_

"_Can my son and I see her?" the king asked._

_With a bow, the doctor replied, "Of course, your majesty."_

_King Vegeta went to fetch the 4-year-old Prince Vegeta and brought him into the bedroom so they could say their goodbyes to Queen Straberra. The king and the prince came to her bedside, where she appeared to be sleeping._

_King Vegeta weakly gained her attention. "Straberra?"_

"_Vegeta, is that you?" she asked weakly as she opened her eyes._

"_Of course," he said to his queen. "I could never leave you."_

"_What did the doctor tell you?" she uttered to her mate._

_King Vegeta said, "He said…you're going to be alright."_

"_Liar," Queen Straberra laughed weakly which was followed by coughing._

_The king rushed to her side, but was waved off. _

"_It's alright, my king."_

"_Our son is here," he said as the king gently edged the prince to his mother's side. "Go ahead."_

_Prince Vegeta walked a little ways to the bedside. "Mother?"_

"_Oh, my little prince," she replied, hearing his voice._

"_Mother, are you going to be alright?" the prince asked._

"_No, my son, I'm afraid I don't have much time left."_

"_Are you going to die?" the young prince asked again._

"_Yes," she said in attempt to console her son. "But don't fear my son, for even though I will be gone, I will always be with you."_

_Prince Vegeta was confused. "I don't understand."_

_She removed something from her neck and weakly gave it her son._

"_This pendant was something that my own mother gave to me when I was young," the queen explained. "I want you to have it. Whenever you feel alone, you can always look at it and know that my spirit is with you. To guide you, to help you, and to protect you. I know that you will grow up into a fine young man. But I want you to promise me something, Vegeta."_

"_Anything," he told her._

"_Promise me that you will always stay the same," she urged her son. "Because there is nothing about you that I would change."_

_She smiled at him and, with one last breath, closed her eyes._

"_Mother?"_

_She didn't respond._

"_Mother!" the prince cried out as he turned around and wrapped his arms around his father._

_As the boy continued to cry into his father's strong chest, the king looked at his now deceased queen and allowed one crystalline tear to escape his eye._

_The father and son were not the only ones to mourn that day, as the entire planet mourned that day over the loss of their queen._

* * *

Vegeta came back to reality after that, still looking through the shop window at the pendant in the window that resembled the one his mother gave him.

But he was never the same since that day. Six months after her death, Frieza took him and destroyed his planet.

While in Frieza's presence, the evil tyrant noticed the pendent around his neck. In a fit of disgust, the tyrant snatched it, saying that such trinkets were foolish.

He never saw it again.

This memory brought a few tears to Vegeta's eyes, which he quickly wiped away.

"Stupid emotions," he muttered to himself. "This planet has made me weak. I should go and see if the woman is ready to leave."

As he walked from the shop, he regretted what he said. In a way, he broke his mother's promise. All that abuse and humiliation he had to swallow under Frieza completely changed him into a different person. His mother must be ashamed of what he's become.

This planet was bringing all that emotion back to him, especially since it was Christmas, which he learned from Bulma and her parents as being a time that people spend with their friends and family.

That was something that he had neither of. He was alone in the universe.

"All I want to do now is to become a Super Saiyan, destroy those androids, defeat Kakarott and then I can leave this dirtball of a planet," he muttered to himself. "The sooner I can leave, the better."

It was foolish of him to think about the pendant, but he couldn't help himself. He didn't have any money to buy it himself and his Saiyan pride wouldn't allow him to ask Bulma or her friends to get it for him.

* * *

"Hey Vegeta, you want to help me put these bags away?" she called out to him after both she and Vegeta entered the house.

"No," the man in question said while heading up to his room.

Bulma asked, "Why not, Vegeta?"

"Because I'm not into this whole Christmas thing. It's ridiculous."

"But we're celebrating it with the rest of our friends," the blue-haired Earthling said. "And Christmas is the time of the year that we spend with our loved ones."

"That's exactly it!" he said as he stopped in his tracks. "You people are not my loved ones! You are not my friends and you are not my family! I have nothing left, except for my quest to become a Super Saiyan! And that is the only, and I mean the ONLY, reason why I am here! Once I do that, I will be gone and I will never have to see any of you ever again! I am Vegeta, the prince of the great Saiyan race and one of the most powerful warriors in the universe! So just stop this stupid crap about Christmas, because you're just wasting your breath!"

"Don't say that Vegeta," she pleaded as Vegeta treaded back up the stairs. "I know it's not true."

"You can believe what you want to believe," he remarked as he continued to his room. "But personally, I don't give a damn!"

Bulma winced when she heard his door slam.

* * *

A week had passed until it was Christmas Eve at Capsule Corp. As promised, the Briefs held a holiday gathering.

The guests included Bulma, Goku, Dr. Briefs, Mrs. Briefs, Gohan, Chi-Chi, Yajirobe, Korin, Ox King, Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, Chiaotzu, Puar, Oolong, Master Roshi, Turtle, Launch, and even Piccolo came.

Reluctantly, Vegeta was there also, since there was nothing else to do.

That night, they had a nice Christmas dinner. All the Saiyans had to eat more civilized, but still ate a lot. They spent the rest of the evening singing Christmas songs, dancing, laughing, playing games, and just having a good time.

"Foolish Earthlings," Vegeta said disgustedly to himself as he watched the festivities. "Look at them, acting like a bunch of idiots. It makes me want to puke."

* * *

The next morning, Christmas finally arrived.

Everyone work up upon Gohan's ecstatic cries and came into the living room where the tree was. After a few minutes, they shook off the sleep and unwrapped their gifts.

Vegeta just sat on the couch all the while, watching them all enjoy their presents and thanking each other until all the presents were unwrapped.

All the while, he showed the same disgust he had from the night before.

* * *

"Okay everybody, let's go into the kitchen where we can have a grand breakfast," Bulma told her friends.

They were all about to leave the living room, until Krillin's voice stopped them. "Hey, we still have a present over here."

"That's funny," Chi-Chi said. "I thought we got them all. Whose is it for?"

Krillin picked up the present and looked at the tag. "From Santa, To Vegeta."

Everyone there was surprised at hearing that, especially Vegeta himself.

"Who would give me a present?" he said as he replaced the shock with irritation.

The Saiyan Prince took the present from the former monk and tore off the wrapping to reveal a small box. Vegeta lifted the lid off, and looked inside, not expecting to see the trinket inside.

It was the pendant from the mall.

"Wow Vegeta," Master Roshi said in awe. "That looks like a beaut."

"But how?" Vegeta was almost speechless as he continued gazing at it. "I mean, I never told anybody about it. It's not possible."

"What do you mean, Vegeta?" Krillin asked.

"This pendant. I saw it at the mall and it reminded me of someone special in my life."

Tien remarked, "That must have cost someone a fortune."

"But who got it for him?" Oolong asked.

Vegeta first asked Bulma. "Woman?"

"It wasn't me, Vegeta."

Vegeta asked Goku. "Kakarott?"

"Don't look at me."

Vegeta then asked Chi-Chi. "You?"

"Me? Get real."

Goku asked, "Well, who got it for him then?"

No one else outed to it.

As he continued inspecting the pendant, Vegeta looked as if he was about to cry.

"Vegeta, are you alright?" Krillin asked with concern.

Vegeta shook it off and regained his usual expression. "Of course I am, don't be ridiculous."

"Well, it's nice to know that you're back to normal," the former monk said with relief. "You were scaring me there for a second."

* * *

Later that evening, everyone got ready for Christmas dinner.

Vegeta stood out on the balcony, overlooking the city with the pendent around his neck as the snow fell from the sky.

"Hey Vegeta," a voice brought him out from his daze.

The Saiyan Prince looked to see Bulma leaning up against the railing. "I didn't hear you approach."

"I guess I have that ability sometimes," she giggled. "I just wanted to let you know that dinner will be ready in a few minutes."

Vegeta said politely, "Thank you."

"It's beautiful."

Vegeta knew that she was looking at the pendant when he replied, "It reminds me of my mother."

"Your mother?" Bulma asked.

"She gave me a pendant similar to this one before she died," Vegeta continued. "She told me that her spirit would always be with me as long as I wore it."

Bulma didn't know how to respond. "Wow."

"Not long afterwards, I was taken by Frieza and he destroyed everything that was dear to me," the dark-haired warrior said. "Ever since, I had been under Frieza's control and somewhere along the way, I lost that quality that my mother loved about me."

Bulma was surprised that he was telling her all this. "Oh Vegeta, that's so sad. Was she pretty?"

"She was beautiful," he said. "She also made me promise that I would never change. So much for that. I guess I have shamed both my parents by becoming a monster like Frieza."

"I disagree."

Vegeta turned his head and replied, "What do you mean?"

"When I look at you as you are, I wouldn't change anything about you," Bulma said with her crystal blue eyes locked with his coal black ones. "I see a man who is strong, determined, and proud of where he came from. All those are great qualities about you. I know that you have done some bad deeds in your life, but I know now that most of that wasn't your fault."

The blue-haired female brushed away some loose blue fibers away from her face. Before she continued, Vegeta looked down at his feet.

"You just never had a chance to be anything else," the scientist continued. "On Namek, you assisted my friends when they needed help. You are a good person, even though you can't see that yet."

Bulma placed her hand on his shoulder, causing the Saiyan Prince to look back up at the female.

"I know that you are," she told him. "I know that I said that I wish you were dead when we came back to Earth but believe me, I am glad that you came back with us. And I also know that both of your parents are proud of the man that you are. I certainly am."

Vegeta was silent as he transferred all that, but found his voice. "I appreciate that. Thank you, Bulma."

Bulma gasped. "You called me Bulma."

"Yeah, I guess I did," he said as he grinned somewhat.

Bulma smiled as Vegeta turned his head to look out into the city again.

With one eye on her, Vegeta noticed Bulma look up and smiled even wider and, without warning, kissed him on the cheek.

"Merry Christmas, Vegeta," she said before walking back inside.

Surprised, Vegeta rubbed his cheek, which still felt warm even out in the cold weather. When he looked up, Vegeta chuckled as he noticed the mistletoe, which he learned about from Bulma's mother. Afterwards, he turned around to see Bulma inside, setting the table and laughing with the others while doing so.

It was at that moment where Vegeta realized something.

Something he never thought would enter his mind.

Maybe it won't be so bad here after all.

With a small smile, Vegeta said to himself, "Merry Christmas, Bulma."

He grasped the pendant one more time before going inside to enjoy a nice Christmas dinner.

* * *

Vegeta did indeed stay on the Earth, where he experienced many more Christmases afterwards. But that first one is the one he would always remember.

**THE END**

I do hope you all enjoyed this holiday story of mine. Now for all you out there who might complain about the OOC factor about Vegeta's mom and dad as well as himself. Well, I just believe that he did love his father and mother, as they did him. I mean, King Vegeta gave his own life in attempt to save his son from Frieza. If that's not love, I don't know what is. So the Saiyans might have been cold, but I don't think they would be so cold that they wouldn't love their family just a little. So please don't be hating and don't forget to send in your reviews as they are greatly appreciated.

So until next time, this is T-Money saying "Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or whichever holiday you celebrate. See ya later, and God bless."


End file.
